Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy Creative New Year!

I wanted to put up the first blog of the new year, on the first day of the new year...and like 2010, it's another Creative Dreaming year! Woohoo!

I'm writing this in the midst of drinking some apple-peach wine, knitting and watching a Who Year's Marathon on BBC America. :D

The first assignment of 2011 is to assess what seems possible right now.

A lot feels possible right now. If I look at the list I made at the start of last year...well, there's certainly a lot I still haven't done...but to be fair there are 100 items on it. I could spend the rest of my life working to attain them all. And oh, what a life that will be! :)

At this moment, the most possible thing seems to be moving out of New York City. So many things have been attributing to this: my noisy upstairs neighbor...the rising costs of living in this already expensive city...my increasing savings and decreasing debt (it's gotten to a very un-stifling level which has also resulted in me treating myself to various post holiday gifts!) and most of all...the fact that I am not a New Yorker. I'm not sure I ever was one, but I'm certainly not one now. I want a better life and one in which I'm thriving and loving what I do. Not just making due. I want to live, not simply exist.

So, in that spirit...I've started the New Year quietly at home in my own space rather than in the city or in someone else's house. It was the first New Year's Eve that I've spent by myself in YEARS. At first I was a bit depressed by this fact but after spending the whole of New Year's Eve Day with my Sister and her family, I had to get back to Queens...and that trip on the Subway is always a huge reminder of how much I don't want to live here anymore. It's not my city.

I'm entering into another hibernation phase before beginning my last year of apprenticeship, another amazing trip to Scotland (the 3rd on my own) and if I'm lucky, the final year of paying off credit card debt (my student loan is another matter all together). During this time I hope to get my website in better working order and continue pursuing ways of making LionArt Creations and The Lion's Share a wonder-full source of income. Also, in February I'll be taking an open hearth cooking class at Mystic Seaport with my Mom!

I hope to keep developing all of my hearth-tending skills. It's when I'm happiest. Then I feel like my opportunities to move out of this city and on to where I'll feel more at home will open up. Here's to tying up loose ends and living our creative dreams!

So happy New Year everyone! I'm going to sign off and get back to Doctor Who, wine, knitting and trying to ignore my upstairs neighbor, who seems to be repeatedly dropping loud objects on his supposedly carpeted floor.

About Me

Lee Ann Monat is a photographer, cook, and writer who uses her life experiences as fuel and inspiration.
She began "The Lion's Share" after her 30th birthday trip to Scotland in 2008. It combines all her creative interests and allows her to share what she loves with others.
Using cooking and travel as creative outlets for the senses, "The Lion's Share" serves as a public diary and photo-journal of one woman's search for herself and her dreams.
Lee Ann hopes that sharing her journey in her unique way might inspire her readers to follow their bliss as well. Continue to follow along at The Lion's Share Blog's new home: http://www.lion-art.com